


Underground

by silverfoxstole



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Fic from 2008, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-17
Updated: 2016-04-17
Packaged: 2018-06-02 19:10:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6578923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverfoxstole/pseuds/silverfoxstole
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A trip to Artus Prime goes awry for the Doctor and Lucie, as the TARDIS lands somewhere rather unexpected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It wasn’t the most hospitable of places: dank, dripping, cold and dark. Those who did visit shivered in their shorts and t-shirts, wishing that they’d stopped to consider the sweater and maybe picked up a sweater before they left the car. They stared around with awe, complained at all the steps they had to climb and how low they had to bend to avoid hitting their heads. But they were only visiting, after all, inside for maybe an hour before heading off to continue their holiday above ground in the sunshine, their subterranean adventure relegated to a few blurred snapshots and something tacky from the souvenir shop.

 

Jason didn’t really care what the tourists thought. He’d spent half his life underground, torch in hand in case the lighting failed, leading parties of them through the cave system, recounting tales of miners and ghosts with a fluency borne of experience. It was the tourists who brought in the money and paid his wages, but his favourite time of the day was first thing in the morning, venturing below alone to switch on the lights and check for floods and obstructions before the first tour at ten o’clock.

 

Taking a hard hat from the rack just in case, he unlocked the gate and headed carefully down the slippery steps to the old mine workings which made up a substantial part of the underground tunnels. His footsteps echoed boots glancing off the rock as he descended, torch beam bobbing ahead of him until he reached the junction box where the light switches were located. The old bakelite switch clicked home, and the passage was immediately illuminated. Others might have been wary of being in the caves alone, superstitious or afraid of the ghosts of miners killed in the shafts. Jason didn’t care about any of that, aware that only two men had died underground: one on a blasting accident, and another who drowned himself in a fit of melancholy over a woman. He’d neither seen nor heard them in all his years working in the caves, and certainly didn’t expect to come across them that morning, despite what he told his tour groups.

 

Where some of his colleagues found the silence oppressive, he regarded it as liberating. Whistling a jaunty tune, he headed further into the workings to check the water level. There had been heavy rain recently, and at one point the water had come as far as the foot of the steps that led to the surface.

 

It was when he turned on a bend, between the two biggest natural caverns, that he heard the noise. Startled, as nothing should have been making a noise so far underground, he stopped dead, listening. After a moment it came again, a kind of wheezing, groaning sound, fluctuating in volume and echoing from the rock.

 

For the first time in nearly twenty years below ground, Jason felt a twinge of apprehension in his stomach. Nothing down there should have been making a sound but him, so…

 

“What the hell _is_ that?”

 

 

***

 

 

“Oh, brilliant. You’ve done it again!” Lucie Miller yelled over her shoulder as she peered into the darkness outside the TARDIS.

 

“Can you see where we are? The instruments aren’t able to pinpoint our position.”

 

“Well, it’s dark, dank, cold…” Lucie squinted into the blackness, trying to make out her surroundings. It was difficult when the only light came from the TARDIS itself, spilling out between the open doors and doing little to illuminate anything. She tentatively put a foot outside. “Feels like rock on the ground. It’s – _eurgh_!!”

 

“Can you define ‘eurgh’?” called the Doctor.

 

“That wasn’t a description – something just dripped on me ‘ead!” exclaimed Lucie in disgust, frantically wiping at her hair and hoping it was just water she could hear dripping around her. She turned to continue speaking to him through the vestibule that connected the doors to the console room, and nearly jumped in the air when she realised the Doctor had come up behind her without making a sound. “Christ! I wish you wouldn’t do that!”

 

“Sorry,” he said, sounding anything but. He stuck his head outside, and had a look round before withdrawing it. Nothing dripped on _his_ head, Lucie noticed sulkily. “Hmm.”

 

“Well?” she asked. “The Imperial garden party on Artus Prime?”

 

The Doctor coughed. “It would appear not.”

 

“Disco on Drakkis IV?”

 

“No.”

 

“A cave?”

 

“Certainly looks that way.”

 

“Good,” said Lucie, “otherwise I would have said that their parties definitely need livening up.”

 

“I should say so. I’ve been to autopsies with more party atmosphere.” The Doctor rummaged in the pocket of his jacket, muttering irritably, “I wish you hadn’t made me wear this. All the useful stuff is in my other coat.”

 

“Doctor, you were _not_ going to wear that ratty old velvet thing to a party,” Lucie told him firmly. “You needed a bit of poshing up, anyway. That suit’s Armani. And it’s dead sexy.”

 

“Dead what?” He sounded distracted. After a moment he gave a little cry of triumph and Lucie had to cover her eyes as a brilliant torch beam nearly blinded her.

 

“Dead sexy,” she repeated when she was able to see again, “but don’t get any ideas that I fancy you or anything. You’re really not my type.” The Doctor looked decidedly uncomfortable, and she grinned. “You’re embarrassed now, aren’t you?”

 

He coughed again, and ran a hand over his short hair. It had become something of a reflex action since he’d had it cut, almost as if he was reassuring himself that it was still there. “Certainly not,” he said, but Lucie could have sworn she saw him blush. The light swung away, over the rocky ceiling, and she could only make out the angular lines of his face and the open collar of his shirt. “Ah. Now we know what caused the scanner to malfunction.”

 

“We do? What, being underground makes the TARDIS pack up?”

 

The Doctor ignored her. “Lead,” he said, wiggling the torch for emphasis. Lucie could see tiny crystals winking in the light. “Lots of it, too. And it’s blocking any communication between the TARDIS and the outside world. She uses that communication to triangulate our position in time and space,” he explained patiently when Lucie just looked blankly at him. “If she can’t do that, she can’t tell where we are.”

 

“So that’s why the scanner was flashing up ‘NO DATA’?”

 

“Precisely.”

 

There was a pause, punctuated by the steady drip of water on rock. Lucie felt goose bumps start on her arms and legs – she’d dressed for a posh do, not a caving expedition. A chilly breeze was coming from somewhere, whistling round her ankles. “So,” she said eventually, more to break the silence than because she really wanted to know, “where’d the lead come from then?”

 

“Natural phenomena,” came the reply. “There’s quite a sizeable vein. I wonder why it’s not been mined out.”

 

Lucie shrugged. “Maybe no one could be bothered.”  


“I find that hard to believe. Why would someone sit on such a supply of ready cash?”

 

“Dunno. Prefer to use Visa myself. D’you think we’ve landed in a mine, then?”

 

“It’s very possible.” He moved off, footsteps echoing on the rock. Lucie realised that if she wasn’t careful she was likely to get left alone in the dark. Pulling the TARDIS door shut, she hurried after him, trying not to slip on the wet floor.

 

“Oi, Doctor – wait for me!”

 

The rock was uneven. As she reached him her foot went out from under her – she would have gone arse over teacup had he not swiftly caught her arm.

 

“Thanks,” she said breathlessly as he righted her, “should’ve put on hiking boots, but they didn’t really go with this dress.”

 

“You’re cold,” was his response, and it wasn’t a question. Next minute he was shrugging out of his jacket, somehow holding onto the torch at the same time, and draped it around her shoulders. His white shirt glowed ethereally in the torchlight. “You should learn to dress more appropriately.”

 

“Says the man whose idea of fashion is two centuries out of date! I was dressed for a garden party, remember? It was you who landed us in a potholer’s paradise!” Lucie pointed out, glad of the heavy fabric of the jacket. She slipped her arms into the sleeves, her hands warmed by the dangling cuffs.

 

_Hello?_

 

“If you wore something that covered your - ” the Doctor began, but Lucie cut him off.

 

“Did you hear that?”

 

_Can anyone hear me?_

 

She could see him frowning in the beam of the torch. “Hear what?”

 

She listened, trying again to catch the sound she’d just picked up.

 

_Hello?_

 

“There it is again! There’s someone else down here!”

 

“In that case, they can tell us where we are. Come on!” The Doctor started off towards the voice. Lucie grabbed hold of the buckle on the back of his waistcoat, not wanting to be left behind.

 

“If anything big, green and scaly comes at us, you can talk to it first,” she told him, then yelped as a drip caught her on the head again.

 

 

***

 

Jason hadn’t heard the strange sound again.

 

He continued his usual check of the tunnels, reasoning that the noise, whatever it was, must have a rational explanation. As he considered what might have made the sound, he did briefly wonder whether the workings had flooded again, and that he could have been hearing rushing water, but when the shafts proved to be as dry as they ever got that idea went swiftly out of the window.

 

Perhaps an animal had fallen through one of the overgrown shaft entrances, up on the hillside, and had been calling for help. _What animal would that be, then?_ He thought scornfully a moment later. _How many elephants are there round here?_

 

Could be the generator, he supposed, but then a quick radio call to Steve up on the surface confirmed that it had been running perfectly the night before. If there had been a problem it would have affected the lights, after all, and they were all fine.

 

It seemed it had no explanation. But Jason was determined that he would not give in to superstition and ascribe an other-worldly cause.

 

It was just then that he heard the voice.

 

 

***

 

“Admit it. You’ve got us lost down here, haven’t you?” Lucie asked after a rather long period of silence, during which the Doctor had led her down a series of twists and turns, the tunnels becoming progressively narrower the further they went.

 

“I have an excellent sense of direction,” came the defensive reply ahead of her.

 

“Maybe, but underground in the dark it doesn’t seem to be working that well.” Lucie shivered again, despite the Doctor’s jacket.

 

“These tunnels are man made, not a natural phenomenon. Therefore, logically we should reach the surface. Eventually.”

 

“Yeah, it was the ‘eventually’ bit that bothered me. Don’t fancy getting stuck down here for days. Might never be found.”

 

“Defeatist.”

 

Lucie stuck out her tongue at the Doctor’s back. “Just out of interest, you got any idea where the TARDIS is?”

 

There was a pause. Then the Doctor said, “Um. No, actually.”

 

“So we _are_ lost!”

 

“Not necessarily. If we turn round and retrace our steps…” The torch beam skittered over the walls, all of which looked exactly the same to Lucie. She was getting thoroughly bored with rock now, and she had never found it that interesting in the first place. In fact, she wanted to be somewhere far away from rock. She wanted to get out of there. Now, preferably.

 

“Maybe if we ever find that person who was calling they might be able to show us the way out,” she said.

 

“Good point. Though don’t you find it odd that you’ve not heard them again? And that I couldn’t hear them at all? Even if we were walking away from them, sound carries in a place like this - ”

 

_Hello?_

“Looks like you spoke too soon,” said Lucie. “Can you hear it now?”

 

_Can you hear me? I need your help!_

 

“Yes. And I don’t think I like it much,” the Doctor replied. “There’s something…not right about it. I can’t…I can’t think what it is.” He sounded frustrated.

 

“It sounds as though they’re in trouble. They must be nearby.” Lucie leaned round him and swiped the torch from his grasp. “Hello?” she called, swinging the beam around, trying to get a fix on anything that wasn’t a million years old and dripping water. “We can hear you – where are you?”

 

_Need…need help…_

 

“We know – we want to help you! Where are you?” The light bounced from the far walls of the tunnel, throwing weird shadows around them. For a minute, Lucie thought she saw…something. It might have been a figure standing there, or it might just have been another twisted lump of rock.

 

“Lucie.” A cool hand covered hers, steadying the torch. She glanced round to see the Doctor’s face, half lit by the beam – his eyes were colourless in the harsh light, but he was looking down the tunnel. “I think you might have found them.”

 

 

***

 

_Hello? Can anyone hear me?_

 

Kids, thought Jason. It had to be kids. They must have got in the same way he’d always done as a lad – down the shaft up by the castle ruins. It was unsafe and fenced off, but that wouldn’t stop youngsters if they were hell bent on stupidly risking their lives. Must have been them making that noise, whatever it had been. He was annoyed at how relieved he felt to find a mundane explanation for it.

 

“Hello?” he shouted back. “Where are you? Are you hurt?”

 

_Need help….need your help…_

 

“OK, yeah, but I need to know where you are! Can you give me any idea?”

 

_Lost…need help…_

“Damn!” He tried the radio but got only a burst of static. The voice sounded as though it was coming from deeper into the old mine workings; beyond the point those in charge deemed it safe to take the public. Jason always abided by the health and safety rules, but he had been given the run of the place as a child, and knew all the tunnels and caves. In cases like this it was just as well he did. Turning his powerful torch on once more, he headed past the DANGER – NO ENTRY sign and into the narrow passage beyond. “Hold on – I’m coming…”

 

***

 

It definitely looked like a man, Lucie thought, as she stared at the rock formation in the light from the Doctor’s torch. The shadow it threw looked human enough, too, looming over them as it stretched across the ceiling. It could almost have been a piece of naïve art, primitively fashioned and left there as a statement about the origins of man or something else equally pretentiously pointless.

 

“What’s it doing here?” she asked after watching the Doctor examine the figure for some minutes.

 

“Hmm? Oh, I should think that the rocks have formed this shape naturally. The water drips from the ceiling and gradually calcifies, making all sorts of strange shapes,” he replied, using that tone that Lucie always mentally termed his ‘school teacher’ voice. “Surely you’ve heard of stalactites and stalagmites?”

 

“Yeah, of course. Had to do a school project on ‘em once. But that’s the weirdest stalactite I’ve ever seen! Aren’t they usually…well, pointy?”

 

“Usually, yes, but there’s a first time for everything, I suppose,” the Doctor mused, his shadow joining the rock man’s on the wall as he moved.

 

Lucie looked at the figure again. The shape had a very distinct outline, and outline that did very much give the impression of two arms, two legs growing out of the floor, and a head. It was hard to tell by torchlight, but the uneven surface of ‘head’ almost seemed to have crude features. For a moment it seemed that a pair of eyes was looking out at her. She shivered, and this time it was nothing to do with the cold.

 

“I don’t know,” she said. “It doesn’t look very natural to me.”

 

The Doctor smiled. “Nature has a great capacity for being strange, ugly and downright weird. That’s one of the things I like most about it: unpredictability.” He clapped the figure companionably on the shoulder. “Our friend here is an excellent example of that. All the way down here, away from outside influences, nature has managed to – _nngh_!!”

 

“Doctor!” Lucie leapt forwards as he suddenly convulsed, face screwed up in pain. The torch beam went wild, plunging across the ceiling and sending everything back into shadow. Lucie groped blindly, catching hold of the Doctor’s arm. He was still holding onto the statue. She pulled his hand away with an effort – it almost felt as though he didn’t want to let go. As she prised his fingers away from the rock he gave a cry and crumpled to the floor, hitting the hard surface with a heavy thud.

 

Lucie crouched down beside him, removing the torch from his slackened grasp. Adjusting the beam, she could make out his face, still now, the eyes closed. “Doctor? Doctor, say something.” There was no response. Quickly she put a hand in front of his mouth and was relieved to find that he was still breathing. He was out for the count, though, and didn’t react as she shook his shoulder none too gently. “Come on, Doctor, pack it in. You’re scaring the crap out of me,” she told him, adding in a warning tone, “Don’t make me have to slap you.”

 

Nothing. Not even a twitch.

 

Lucie swore. It echoed from the rocky walls and, pleased with the effect, she did it again, a bit louder. What the hell was she meant to do now? She couldn’t lift the Doctor, let alone carry him, and even if she could she had no idea where the TARDIS was. One wrong turn and she could be even more lost than she was already.

 

_Hello?_

“Oh, great. Not you again. Are you real or just some weird echo?”

 

_Need help…_

“Yeah, and so do I. Any chance of _you_ helping _me_?”

 

_…help…_

“Thought not,” said Lucie. Whatever that voice was, it had to be coming from somewhere. She could just sit tight and wait for the Doctor to wake up, but with weird rock figures and even weirder disembodied voices she didn’t fancy hanging around for long. The place was seriously giving her the willies. “Right. If you can shout for help, so can I.”

 

Decision made, she cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled as loud as she could.

 

 

***

 

“Can you give me some idea where you are?”

 

Jason hadn’t heard the voice again for some minutes as he hurried down the winding passageway in the rock. The deeper he went, the less likely it would be for him to be able to radio for assistance should the young idiots have hurt themselves. He was well beyond the so-called ‘safe’ area here, and acting on his own initiative. If anything went wrong and it was discovered he hadn’t told anyone what he was doing, the caves could be sued like crazy despite the kids having illegally entered the workings.

 

“Hey! Can you still hear me?” he yelled. “Are you OK?”

 

_…help…_

 

Jason stepped up his pace.

 

 

***

 

 

“Hello? Is there anyone _real_ out there? Can you hear me?”

 

Lucie’s voice bounced back to her once again. It felt as though she’d been shouting herself hoarse for hours now with no result. Maybe there really wasn’t anyone else down there, and that voice she’d heard was just some weird figment of her imagination. It hadn’t said anything for a while at any rate.

 

In the meantime, she was left alone with a Time Lord who might be dying for all she knew and a torch whose battery would eventually run down, maybe sooner than later. Then she’d be in the dark. Alone in the dark. With strange voices drifting around…

 

Lucie shook herself. “Get a grip, Miller,” she muttered, “You are _not_ afraid of things that go bump in the dark. Got that?”

 

She glanced at the Doctor in the yellow torchlight – his face had a horrible waxy look to it, reminding her of something from Tussaud’s. He hadn’t moved in ages.

 

“Hang on, Doctor,” she said, even though it was doubtful he could hear her. “I’ll think of something. I’ll get us out of here…”

 


	2. Chapter 2

_Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip._

It was very damp in this part of the mine. Jason knew that the rainwater could take days, even weeks to penetrate through the rock and reach the lower levels, but compared with the main visitor route the tunnel he was in was positively soaking. He could feel rather than see the water lying on the ground, sloshing over his boots as he walked.

 

_Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip._

The sound of the water running down the walls to hit the puddles on the floor was a steady, regular rhythm. If he hadn’t been aware of the source of the noise and had been of a fanciful nature, he might have thought that it sounded like footsteps, coming down the tunnel behind him.

 

_Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip._

Jason stumbled, his foot catching on an uneven rock. He put out a hand to catch himself and started as he realised that though the wall beneath his fingers was wet, it was running with moisture as he had supposed. There was not dripping, because there wasn’t enough water on the rock.

 

_Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip._

 

He froze. That strange feeling he’d had when he heard that weird noise earlier returned tenfold. He tried to tell himself that it was just an irrational reaction to the almost complete darkness, and that it was the cold that was making him shiver; tried to tell himself that he hadn’t been followed down the tunnel and that there wasn’t someone standing behind him right now, no matter what his senses were telling him.

 

Steadying himself he turned, bringing up the torch to shine the beam back down the way he had come. In the yellow light, he thought he saw something move –

 

\- and then the tunnel was plunged into inky blackness as the torch abruptly went out.

 

 

***

 

“Doctor? Come on, Doctor, this is getting really old now. I’m freezing my bits off, things are still dripping on me ‘ead, and I’ve got the weirdest feeling someone’s watching me.”

 

Lucie wasn’t surprised when the Doctor didn’t reply. According to her watch he’d been unconscious for nearly forty minutes – he was stone cold, despite her attempts to try and rub some warmth into his hands, which couldn’t be good. She’d been shouting for what seemed like forever, to no avail. Maybe they’d landed in a deserted mine, with no one for miles. Or perhaps they were cut off from the outside world by a rock fall, trapped underground…

 

“Don’t think like that, Miller,” she told herself sternly, trying not to shiver and for once actually missing the Doctor’s old velvet coat. It would have been a lot warmer, and he probably would have had a scarf or a pair of gloves, or maybe even a portable heater hidden away in the pockets.

 

She flapped her arms, trying to generate some warmth, and looked around her. Nothing but rocky tunnel in either direction, and their friend the cave man in the middle, standing guard over the bend. Lucie ventured a little closer to it; more to try and keep herself warm than anything else. The Doctor had been touching it before his collapse. There was definitely something freaky about it – when she got near, she felt…well, strange. Almost as though there was a kind of buzzing in her ears.

 

“You’re well weird, you know that?” she informed the figure.

 

Unsurprisingly, it didn’t reply.

 

“Great. Stuck underground with such fascinating company. This tops even that weekend in Scarborough when Dan went out and got so rat-arsed he fell off the pier and we spent all Saturday night in A and E. Even that was more fun than this.” Lucie turned her back on the figure, bending over the Doctor once more. He still seemed to be breathing OK, but nothing she did could get even a flicker of the eyelids out of him. “Right,” she said, making a decision that she should have made some time before, “I’m going to find the TARDIS. Does she have a distress flare or an alarm or something?”

 

No response.

 

Lucie sighed. “OK. You sit tight there – well, lie there, anyway. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” She looked around, shoving her hands into the pockets of the Doctor’s jacket, and blew out her cheeks. “Now, which way was it?”

 

Both stretches of the tunnel looked alike. She took the torch from the crevasse in which she’d wedged it and shone it past the rock man. The figure’s outstretched arm seemed almost to be pointing down the passage, its shadow thrown in sharp relief on the wall.

 

Lucie frowned. Hadn’t the figure been pointing the other way a moment ago? She turned the torch onto the rock man itself, and felt something very much like a scream rise into her throat as the thing’s lumpen head slowly and creakily turned to look at her…

 

 

***

 

 

Jason tried the torch.

 

The battery couldn’t be dead – it had only been replaced the day before. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end as whatever was behind him – _There’s nothing behind you, it’s all in your mind, you idiot!_ – came closer.

 

“Come one, come on…”

 

 

***

 

 

Lucie stared at the rock man, and the rock man stared at Lucie.

 

Or rather, it would have done, had it actually possessed eyes to stare with. She took a step backwards, holding the torch in front of her like a vampire hunter with a crucifix. The beam passed over the creature’s face, and it moved its head from side to side, making a deep rumbling noise, almost as it if didn’t like the light much.

 

_Who are you?_

It was the same voice Lucie had heard before – strange, echoey, unreal. She realised that it wasn’t in the tunnel; it was in her head, in her mind. The rock man couldn’t be speaking because the rock man didn’t have a mouth. She held out the torch, directing the beam at the thing’s head. It rumbled again. “I’m Lucie Miller, rock-head. Who’re you?”

 

_We are old…we need no name…_

 

“Handy. What did you do to my mate?”

_We did nothing but touch his mind…he is not of this world…_

 

“Blimey, no flies on you, are there?” Lucie, emboldened by the effect the light was having on the creature, turned up the beam. The rock man swayed, jerkily raising one arm as if to shield itself from the light. “Ha! Don’t like that, do you? Was that you calling before, kidding on that you needed help?”

 

_We need help…need…your…help…_

 

“Oh, yeah?” asked Lucie. She cocked her head to one side, a hand on her hip. “What for, exactly? If it’s some kind of really weird blind date you’re after, you’re really not my type.”

 

The figure steadied, straightening itself, arms still raised. As it moved, little cracks appeared where its joints should be, only to heal over and vanish back into its rocky surface. Lucie watched, fascinated despite herself. The rock looked almost alive.

 

_You will help us…help us to feed…we have been so long without…sustenance…you bring us…fresh meat…_

“Oh, no you don’t! I’m no one’s burger and chips!” Lucie took a tighter grip on the torch. “I’ve got light, and I’m not afraid to use it!”

 

The torch picked that moment to go out.

 

Lucie stood there in the dark, feeling a right prat. She could hear the creaking of the creature as it moved, moved towards her.

 

“Er, Doctor…I think we might have a problem.”

 

 

***

 

 

“Come on, come _on_!”

 

Whatever it was behind him was getting closer. No matter how much he told himself that he was a rational man, that he didn’t believe in ghosts and that Halloween was a festival of trash imported from America, he couldn’t deny the shivers that ran down his spine.

 

“Who are you?” he demanded, trying to sound normal and not let his voice shake. “What’re you doing down here?”

 

There was what almost sounded like a low chuckle behind him, and a voice that was like a cold wind blowing through his head whispered,

 

_Food…at last…food…._

***

 

Lucie backed away as far as she could, only to end up against the wall of the tunnel. The rock thing was blocking both escape routes.

 

Crouching down, she dragged the Doctor half upright and tried to pull him away from the creature’s approach. “Oh, come on, you always carry junk with you,” she muttered, desperately searching through the contents of his pockets. “Now would be a great time to wake up and get us out of this, y’know.”

 

There might have been a low groan in response, but she couldn’t be sure. Her hand closed around something long, cold and cylindrical in his inside jacket pocket. _Bingo!_ The sonic screwdriver. Lucie had no idea what setting it was on, or even if it would work, but it was her only hope at that moment. Lifting it up, she pointed it in the direction the creature seemed to be in and pushed the button.

 

Immediately a high pitched warbling filled the air, setting her teeth on edge and threatening to vibrate her fillings out of her mouth. It had a drastic effect on the creature – with an unearthly screech that was even worse than the noise made by the sonic screwdriver, there was a deafening crack and a rumbling noise so loud that Lucie thought she might have inadvertently started an earthquake. The sound of rock hitting rock reverberated around her, bouncing off the walls.

 

She crouched there for several moments, waiting to hear the inexorable creaking of the creature as it began its pursuit once more. When nothing happened, she tentatively got to her feet, waving away the dust that suddenly filled the tunnel, and leant the Doctor gently against the wall. Her finger slipped on the screwdriver, and a bright light appeared from the end of the handle, making her jump. “Now that’s a good idea,” she told no one in particular, turning the tool upside down and shining the beam ahead of her to where the rock man had been.

 

“Oh.”

 

There was no creature. Just a pile of rubble and jumbled rocks, as though the ceiling had fallen in.

 

“Bloody hell. Wall of Sound, eat your heart out.”

 

 

***

 

 

The crash startled Jason.

 

It came barely a moment after the torch had come back on. His first instinct was to think it had been a rock fall – his reflexes had taken over, feet guiding him towards the source of the sound before he even realised that the presence behind him was no longer there. He was too relieved by the fact to bother analysing what had happened too deeply. If those kids he’d heard were still down there they could be trapped. He tried his radio again, but it was still dead. Too deep to get a signal here – that could make things tricky.

 

“Hello?” he shouted, “Anyone there? Are you OK?”

 

 

***

 

 

Lucie heard the voice.

 

It was a real voice this time, a human voice, not some weird echo in her head. It was real, and it sounded close.

 

“Oi! My friend’s hurt!” she called. “We’re in this narrow tunnel – can you hear me?”

 

“I can hear you perfectly. Think you’re round the next – oh.” The beam of a bright torch appeared, momentarily dazzling her. When she could see again without little coloured dots in front of here eyes, she could make out a man standing behind the rubble that had been the rock creature. He looked wonderfully normal, dressed in a fleece and hardhat, the torch held in one gloved hand. He squinted at her. “How did you get in here?”

 

“Can we leave the awkward questions till later? My mate’s not well – we need to get him out of here.”

 

The man clambered over the rubble and crouched down beside her, peering at the Doctor. “What happened?”

 

Lucie shook her head. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

 

 

***

 

 

She couldn’t be more than twenty, Jason thought, glancing at the girl again. Kneeling on the floor, huddling in a suit jacket that was too big for her and did nothing to cover her bare legs, she hardly looked the type to go climbing down and abandoned mine shaft for kicks. She pushed her bobbed blonde hair away from her grimy face and bent over her friend.

 

“Doctor? Doctor, it’s Lucie. Can you hear me?”

 

A groan came from the crumpled shape on the ground. Jason’s torch picked out a man, rather older than the girl, though it was difficult to tell by how much as the harsh light bleached his features of any lines they might have had. He raised a hand, weakly, to shield his eyes from the glare. The girl – Lucie apparently – helped him to sit up.

 

“Your timing’s rotten,” she said quietly to him, “Why couldn’t you have come round five minutes ago?”

 

Jason was hopelessly confused. These two didn’t look like travellers, or nutters with a penchant for courting danger – they looked relatively ordinary, and far too well-dressed for a caving expedition. The girl looked more like she was going to a party, a flimsy summer dress just visible beneath her jacket, and ludicrously impractical sandals on her feet. The man was wearing a suit, with a gold watch chain clipped to his waistcoat which glinted in the torchlight. What the hell were they doing in the tunnels? There was no way that they could have got there before him, as the main gate had been locked and bolted as usual when he arrived, but here they very definitely were. It was a puzzle, and Jason had never liked puzzles.

 

“Hello?” said Lucie sharply, bringing him back to reality, “Are you going to help us, or what?”

 

“Lucie…” the man said softly, his tone mildly reproving.

 

“We’re a long way below ground here,” Jason told the girl, nettled by her attitude, “This is the deepest part of the mine, and it’s unstable. Not the best place to be taking a stroll.”

 

“Yeah, I’d gathered that. Good job I didn’t choose it for me morning walk, then, isn’t it?” she asked, giving him a challenging look, chin raised. “Look, mate, I - ”

 

“Is it a long walk to the surface?” the man asked, interrupting her.

 

Jason looked at him. His face was good-looking in a rather unsettling sort of way, the eyes sharp but friendly, their colour lost in the torchlight. Jason wondered whether Lucie was his daughter – he looked about old enough. “A fair distance,” he said. “Do you think you’re up to it?”

 

“Well, I don’t think lying around down here’s going to do me much good. It’s a bit parky, isn’t it?” With Lucie’s assistance, he got to his feet, though she had to put an arm round his waist to steady him. He looked around. “Hello, where did our friend go?”

 

Jason frowned. “I’m - ”

 

“Not you,” said Lucie, and turned back to her companion. “I’ll tell you about it later. Are you sure you’re OK?” Her tone was softer than the one she’d used when addressing Jason.

 

“Not entirely, no, but we won’t worry about that for now.” The man looked at Jason and smiled. “I’m the Doctor and this is Lucie. I must thank you for coming to our assistance.”

 

Jason found himself shaking the outstretched hand. It was clear the man had been lying around on the rock for too long – his skin was icy cold. “You’re lucky I was down here checking the place over. How the hell did you get in? This is private property – you’re trespassing.”

 

The Doctor’s face fell. “Is it? Oh, dear, I do apologise. I had no idea. We didn’t come via the usual routes, you see.”

 

“He means we came by time machine,” said Lucie bluntly, and the Doctor groaned. “It’s in a cave back there somewhere – big blue box, you can’t miss it.”

 

Jason frowned again, not sure if she was having him on or not. She certainly sounded serious enough, but her statement was completely ridiculous. “I could call the police - ”

 

“Oh, I’m sure there’s no need for that – we’re quite harmless. You’ll have to excuse my friend,” the Doctor said, earning himself a glare from Lucie, “Manners seem to have passed her by. Can you lead the way above ground? We’re a little…lost - ”

 

“That’s an understatement,” Lucie muttered.

 

“ – and it would be helpful to pin-point our exact position on the map,” the Doctor finished smoothly, as though she had never spoken.

 

Jason shrugged. “Sure. Maggie’s got some maps at the office you can take a look at if you like.”

 

“Thank you, Mr - ?”

 

“Lane. Jason Lane.”

 

“Thank you, Mr Lane. You’ve been very helpful.” The Doctor beamed at him. Lucie just rolled her eyes and hunched deeper into her jacket. Another look at her shoes reinforced Jason’s suspicion that, however they had got in; it hadn’t been down one of the shafts. Who the hell were they? They seemed eccentric, certainly, but didn’t appear to be a threat. He shook his head. Too many things had happened this morning that he couldn’t put an explanation to.

 

“Come on then,” he said, turning to clamber back over the rubble that was blocking the tunnel, “It’s this way. Oh, and watch your feet- we’ve had a lot of rain round here recently.”

 

 

***

 

 

“Doctor, what happened to you back there?” Lucie hissed as they followed the light of Jason’s torch. The tunnels seemed to be widening as they headed upwards, the floor gently sloping underfoot.

 

“I don’t know – psychic feedback, maybe?” he rubbed at his forehead and grimaced. “It certainly gave me a good kick in the brain, whatever it was.”

 

“Well, you scared the pants off me, I can tell you. I was already getting creeped out by this place. And then - ”

 

“It certainly does have an unusual ambiance,” the Doctor agreed. He glanced at Jason’s back curiously. “I wonder if our friend there can feel it, or if it’s something more subtle.”

 

“You mean something you can feel because you’re not human?” Lucie suggested.

 

“Could be.”

 

“Then how come I can feel it, clever dick? I’m human, aren’t I?”

 

“That’s debateable,” muttered the Doctor, and then held up a hand when she opened her mouth to argue. “Let’s discuss it when we get out of here, shall we? I’m starting to feel claustrophobic.”

 

“I’m not surprised. Doctor,” said Lucie, keeping her voice low so that Jason couldn’t hear her – it wouldn’t be a good idea to let the cave boy know that there had been a walking lump of rock down in his precious tunnels. “I _know_ what’s down here.”

 

The Doctor stopped walking (well, staggering, really, as he was still leaning on her) and looked at her, eyes wide in surprise. “How - ?”

 

Lucie paused, trying to decide what to say, but also for effect, something the Doctor did on a regular basis and that she found seriously annoying. It wouldn’t hurt to give him a taste of his own medicine for once. He watched her, expression changing from disbelief to mild irritation as the moments passed.

 

“I don’t know what it is _exactly_ ,” she said finally, “but it’s old, it’s hungry, and I think _we_ may have woken it up.”

 

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

“Tea! Brilliant. Thanks – I’m freezing. It’s colder than a polar bear’s whatsit down there.”

 

Lucie gratefully took the mug from Maggie and huddled down inside her borrowed fleece. She was too glad to be warm again to pay much attention to the bemused glance Maggie shot her as she sat down across the room.

 

On emerging from the caves, Lucie and the Doctor had had a hurried discussion about the creature down below, during which she’d quickly filled him on what had happened while he’d been unconscious, before the highly suspicious Jason had ushered them into the site office. He glowered at them for some time, and threatened to call the police until the Doctor started asking questions about strange happenings in the mine. The suggestion that anything out of the ordinary might be going on down in his precious caves put Jason immediately on the defensive.

 

“Look,” he said sharply, “If you’re going to start banging on about ghosts - ”

 

“He doesn’t believe in them, do you, Jase?” said Maggie, picking up the kettle. “The rest of us have felt something down there, but he won’t have it.”

 

“That’s because there’s nothing there,” Jason insisted, his weary expression making Lucie guess that this was an old argument. “I’ve spent more time down there than anyone else, and I’ve never seen a thing.”

 

“That just proves you’re one of those people who can’t feel the vibrations, not that there are no ghosts,” she pointed out.

 

He rolled his eyes, exasperated. “What do you want me to do? Invite _Most Haunted_ to do a programme and prove to you that it’s all rubbish?”

 

“You won’t do that. They might find something.”

 

The Doctor snorted. “I doubt it. I don’t believe in ghosts.”

 

“Thank you!” said Jason. Then he seemed to take in what the Doctor had said and stared at him. “Hang on – a moment ago you were suggesting we had something supernatural down there!”

 

“I didn’t suggest anything of the sort. You jumped to the obvious conclusion.” The Time Lord got up and crossed the office to look at the Ordnance Survey map pinned to the wall. “I said there was something in the caves, but it’s far more likely to be extra-terrestrial than supernatural in origin.”

 

Jason blinked in astonishment, and then laughed out loud. “Oh, come on – that’s even more ludicrous than ghosts!”

 

“Is it?” asked the Doctor with absolute seriousness. He turned and fixed Jason with a piercing blue gaze, and after a few moments the man had look away.

 

“You think it’s alien, Doctor?” Lucie asked after a pause.

 

“I think it’s highly likely, yes,” he replied, swinging back round to look at the map again.

 

That had been half an hour ago. Maggie offered to make tea, and they all sat there, rather uncomfortably watching the Doctor as he stared at the map in silence. He seemed to have forgotten that they were even in the room. Lucie had returned his jacket when Maggie found her a spare uniform fleece, and he stood there like a silhouette in the sunlight that streamed through the window, one hand stroking his chin and a frown embedded between his eyebrows.

 

“Look,” said Maggie eventually, “would someone mind telling me exactly what the hell’s going on?”

 

“Rock monsters,” Lucie replied before Jason could open his mouth. “You’ve got ‘em in your caves. But don’t worry, the Doctor’ll sort ‘em out.”

 

“Oh, right. Rock monsters.”

 

“Insanity,” muttered Jason. “Sheer insanity…”

 

“Well, you believed in the ghosts, didn’t you?” Lucie asked Maggie, ignoring him.

 

“I felt something when I went down there, yes,” Maggie conceded. “We all did, except Jase. Steve always said it was the guy who killed himself hanging around. You’d think it would put off the visitors, but they love to hear about a haunting. Always made me feel uncomfortable – that’s why I run things up here.”

 

Lucie frowned. “What did you feel?”

 

“I don’t know…cold, I suppose, like someone was watching me.” Maggie shivered. “I didn’t like it.”

 

“Did you ever hear voices?”

 

Maggie shook her head, looking surprised to be asked. “No, no one’s ever mentioned voices before.”

 

Lucie glanced over the other woman’s shoulder at Jason. He was looking rather confused, and extremely uncomfortable. “You heard the voices, didn’t you?” she said. “Before you found us.”

 

“Of course he did, Lucie,” said the Doctor without turning round. “He just doesn’t want to admit it. Do you, Mr Lane?”

 

Jason looked reluctant. After a few moments of everyone looking at him expectantly he said, “I don’t…I might have…But it was dark – the torch went out. Pitch blackness can make you imagine all sorts of things. Can’t it?”

 

“Oh, certainly, though I think that something more sinister was at work in this instance. The same something that quite violently gave my brain a scan when I came into contact with it.” The Doctor massaged his forehead for a moment, wincing. “Very crude metal power.”

 

“I’ve been wondering about that,” Lucie remarked. “How come that happened to you and not me? It looked like something was attacking you.”

 

“In a way it was. And it got me because I touched it. It recognised me as something alien.” He tapped the map. “You know, it’s interesting that the mine is so cut off. No settlement for at least fifteen miles. A very lonely place to work.”

 

“There _was_ a village at one point,” said Maggie, still looking rather confused. “Received wisdom has it that the place was deserted during the plague in the seventeenth century. Eyam’s not that far away. It remained uninhabited until lead was found in the 1770s and the mine was sunk.”

 

“And the mine was eventually abandoned too?”

 

“The company went bankrupt. Not enough lead to even cover the costs,” Jason said.

 

“Oh, I doubt that’s true.” The Doctor turned round at last. “Not if the sizeable lead vein Lucie and I saw down there is anything to go by.”

 

Jason looked startled. “Lead? Where?”

 

“Beyond the old workings. There’s a network of tunnels off the passage you found us in. If they’d dug far enough to reach them they would’ve been onto a winner. So why didn’t they?” mused the Doctor, raising an eyebrow. “Hmm?”

 

“Because something stopped them. Frightened them away,” said Lucie, seeing the rock man crumble in her mind’s eye.

 

“I think so. It must have been something major to make them leave so much potential cash behind.” There was a pause, and then the Doctor said, “Energy!”

 

Maggie and Jason looked at each other, and she shrugged. Lucie, used to these random moments, asked, “What about energy, Doctor?”

 

He sat down on the edge of one of the desks and picked up the mug of tea Maggie had left there for him. “From what you’ve told me, Lucie, it very much sounds as though the creature feeds on energy. This tea is cold. Until we arrived, that section of the tunnels had been left for more than two hundred years. Then the TARDIS turns up, and suddenly there are live energy signatures again. Without food, the creature has been hibernating, dormant, but now it wakes up, and it wants breakfast.”

 

“TARDIS?” said Maggie, perplexed.

 

“His spaceship,” Lucie clarified. “It’s down there.”

 

Jason shook his head. “This all sounds like something from a bad sci-fi series! I’m a rational man!”

 

“And so am I, Mr Lane,” said the Doctor, finishing the cold tea and plonking the mug down on the desk with a crack. “Nothing wrong with rationality, it’s being narrow-minded that causes problems.”

 

“Now hold on - ”

 

“Doctor, if you’re right about this energy thing,” said Lucie before an argument could start, “then how come it couldn’t feed off the TARDIS?”

 

“Because I don’t think it can metabolise the energy from the TARDIS. It’s alien. The TARDIS is alien. What’s it been feeding on in the past?”

 

“Humans,” said Maggie quietly.

 

“Precisely,” the Doctor agreed. “It was _your_ energy signature that whetted its appetite, Lucie. Remember that only you could hear the voices to start with?”

 

She stared at him. “It’s after _me_? What about _your_ energy whatsit?”

 

“My energy signature is the same as the TARDIS’s. Artron energy. That’s why it reacted so strongly when it tried to scan me – my energy composition confused it.”

 

“You’re making this up, aren’t you?”

 

He just gave her one of those enigmatic smiles he was so good at. Lucie wanted to smack him. Maggie raised her hand, like a kid at the back of a classroom.

 

“Excuse me,” she said, “but if there _is_ something in the caves, what do we do about it? We can’t call the police, can we?”

 

“Maggie - ” Jason began, but she cut him off.

 

“Let’s just say for the sake of argument that there is something, Jase. I’ve felt it, we’ve all felt it over the years. And now you - ”

 

“It’s rubbish, superstition! The mind can play tricks – the dark does that to you! You can’t believe this, it’s absurd!”

 

She shook her head. “I know what I felt. And so do you, if you’d only admit it to yourself.” Before he could say anything else, she looked at the Doctor and Lucie. “You two seem to know all about it. What do we do?”

 

The Doctor turned to Lucie. “You said that the sonic screwdriver worked against the creature we found?”

 

“It didn’t like the sound. Or the light. The noise made it crumble,” she said. “I was surprised when it worked.”

 

From the look on his face, the cogs of the Doctor’s brain were working overtime. “Then we may have a chance. We have to make sure that the mine is empty – deprive the creature of food. What time do your tours start?” he asked Maggie.

 

“Ten. Steve will be getting ready to take the first lot down,” she replied.

 

“Good. Tell him to keep them above ground until instructed otherwise.” The Doctor was already heading for the door. Lucie and Maggie followed, with Jason bringing up the rear.

 

When they emerged from the office the main entrance to the mine was deserted, the gates closed. The benches that snaked round the wall for waiting visitors were all empty. Maggie frowned, and called to the youngish guy leaning against the ticket booth smoking a cigarette.

 

“Matt – where is everyone? There was a group waiting here earlier.”

 

He looked at her as though she was mad. “Steve’s taken ‘em down. Been there about fifteen minutes now. Why?”

 

“Did he go early?” asked Jason, looking concerned despite his refusal to believe that there was a threat. “He should be starting now!”

 

“Went dead on ten, same as always,” Matt replied. “What’s the matter with you two?”

 

The Doctor pulled out his pocket watch and flicked it open. “It’s just gone a quarter past ten,” he said. “When was the battery last changed in your office clock?”

 

“It was going to be changed tomorrow,” said Maggie, and an expression of horror crossed her face as she realised the implication of her words, “It’s been running slow…”

 

Jason checked his own watch and swore.

 

“Quite,” agreed the Doctor. He was across the little courtyard in three strides and pulling open the gates, much to Matt’s consternation. “We’d better hope they haven’t got too far!”

 

 

***

 

 

Lucie was glad of the handrail as she followed the others down the slippery steps as fast as she could. The Doctor had gone haring off like a Gallifreyan mountain goat, probably not even noticing how wet the rock was underfoot. Thankfully, Maggie hung back a little to make sure that Lucie didn’t reach the bottom somewhat quicker than she expected.

 

When they caught up, Jason was trying to make the Doctor take a hard hat.

 

“No time for that, Mr Lane!” came the reply as the Time Lord vanished through the door that led to the mine proper.

 

“That man is an idiot!” Jason fumed, gesturing towards the door with the hat he still held.

 

“He’s a Time Lord - got a head like a rock. I’ll have that, though - ” Lucie plucked the hat from his hand and plonked it on her head “ – I’m sick of getting dripped on.” Cursing her sandals once again, she tottered off through the door after the Doctor. Behind her she could hear Jason complaining about something and Maggie telling him in no uncertain terms to shut up and go back to the office if he didn’t like it.

 

Beyond the door was a narrow tunnel that Lucie recalled from her first visit earlier. After about fifty metres or so it widened, opening out into the first of the caves. Yellow light spilled over the walls from the old lamps, sending shadows skittering all over the place, but barely touching the high ceiling that dripped with stalactites (or was it stalagmites? She could never remember which was which) like huge icicles. She pulled a face in disgust as her foot splashed through a puddle that she hadn’t even noticed, dousing her toes in ice-cold water.

 

The cave was empty, no sign of either the tour party or the Doctor. Telling herself that she wasn’t here to admire the view, Lucie hurried on as best she could, leaving the others to catch her up. She passed through two more caves, one of them with a spectacular drop into the bowels of the earth that she barely paid any attention to, more intent on keeping her footing on the dodgy stairs, before she heard voices up ahead. Creeping forwards, she found an alcove that was about the right size to keep her hidden from view, and peered round into the cavern beyond.

 

A group of about ten or fifteen people were standing in a loose semi-circle, some muttering amongst themselves and looking rather annoyed. Lucie could make out a tall young man in a hard hat and navy blue fleece crouched over something on the floor. With him was the familiar black-suited figure of the Doctor.

 

“I think she’s all right,” Lucie heard him say, his voice echoing from the rock, “Just fainted. She’ll need to be taken outside for some air.”

 

“I don’t understand,” the guide – Steve, Lucie remembered – said, “She was fine a moment ago. Then she reckoned she could see something, up there.” He pointed to a spot halfway up the wall – Lucie looked, as all the other people were doing, but could see nothing beyond another small alcove, shrouded in shadow.

 

The Doctor’s head shot up from his examination of the unconscious woman and he fixed Steve with a hard stare. “Saw something? What did she see?”

 

Steve shrugged. “I don’t know. She keeled over two seconds later. Look, who are you, anyway? How did you get in here?”

 

“He came with me, Steve,” said Jason, entering the cave with Maggie in tow. “We need to get everyone out. Now.”

 

“He’s changed his tune,” Lucie murmured to Maggie as the other woman joined her. “What happened?”

 

“I told him he was being an idiot; and that if he didn’t stop being one I’d get a priest to exorcise the place. It’s the last thing he wants, as it’d convince people that the ghosts are real.” Maggie smiled. “I’ve been threatening to do it for years.”

 

 

***

 

 

“Is she OK?” Jason asked the Doctor. “I don’t want us to end up with a lawsuit on our hands.”

 

“Yes, I think she’ll be right as rain once she gets some fresh air. It looks like the power of suggestion is the culprit here – the ghost stories made her think that she saw something,” the Doctor replied, taking hold of the woman’s wrist to check her pulse. Despite his rather eccentric appearance, he seemed to know what he was doing. He touched the woman’s cheek and she groaned, her eyelids flickering. “She’s coming round now.”

 

“ _Did_ she see anything?”

 

“That depends on whether our rocky friends have made it out of those tunnels. I suggest you get everyone out of here on health and safety grounds, and then I need to get to my TARDIS. I have some equipment that may help us against these things.”

 

“Right.” Jason straightened and found Steve standing right behind him.

 

“Jase, what the hell is going on? Who is that guy?” the guide demanded.

 

“The inspector,” said Jason, voicing the first thought that came into his head. It didn’t sound very convincing, and evidently Steve didn’t believe it for a moment.

 

“You what?”

 

“The health and safety guy who was coming to make sure everything was ship shape after the flood. He should have been here first thing – got caught in traffic.”

 

Steve just stared at him. “ _What_ traffic? Jase - ”

 

“Just take my word for it, Steve. Who’s the boss here, you or me?”

 

“Well, you, obviously, but - ”

 

“Then stop asking questions.” Jason felt awful having to lie to his staff, but this situation was looking dodgier and dodgier. Even if there were no alien rock monsters in the mine, he couldn’t run the risk of the woman who had fainted suing them. “Get everyone back above ground and have Lisa look at that lady. If necessary call an ambulance and have her checked out. We have to take this seriously.”

 

Steve reluctantly agreed, and went, shepherding his grumbling group before him. The Doctor gave the recovering woman into the care of her relatives, with the order that she had some water and air as soon as possible, then he allowed Jason to take the lead as they were heading into the depths of the mine workings. This meant it was time for torches and single-file procession, Jason in front and Maggie and Lucie behind him with the Doctor bringing up the rear. Silence descended as they walked, the only sound the rustle of clothes and the splash of their footsteps in unseen puddles. Despite himself Jason felt a knot of apprehension in his stomach, recalling the strange feelings he’d had before. He told himself once again that it had been his imagination, but the Doctor and Lucie’s assertions that there was something nasty in the tunnels kept nagging at him. Was it really possible that there had been something lurking down there all that time and he’d never noticed?

 

 

***

 

Lucie was glad of her borrowed fleece – the deeper they went the colder it got.

 

They passed the sign that forbade visitors to venture any further, and as the passage got even narrower she realised that they were back in the abandoned section of the mine in which she and the Doctor had arrived. As Jason’s torch beam swept over the rock, at last leading them into a wider tunnel, she was sure that they were on familiar ground.

 

“This is where we saw the rock man,” she said, and they all stopped.

 

“You’re sure?” asked the Doctor.

 

Lucie nodded. “Positive. I remember that bend, and there’s the rubble from when the sonic screwdriver – and this is going to sound really dodgy but I can’t think of a better way to describe it – vibrated it to bits.”

 

“Hmm.” He squeezed past her into the tunnel, using the torch in the screwdriver’s handle to see. Lucie watched his shadow dancing over the ceiling as he crouched down to look at the pile of rock and an image of him, face contorted in agony as he touched the rock flashed into her head. As he reached out to touch the rubble she called to him to stop.

 

“Remember what happened last time?” she asked when he looked questioningly at her.

 

He gave her a grin. “Don’t worry. I know what to expect – I’ll be ready for it if it tries that stunt again.”

 

“Yeah, and I’ve heard that one before. It wasn’t funny – I thought you might be dead.”

 

“Sorry.” He sobered. “I’ll be careful, I promise.”

 

“Is he really an alien?” Maggie asked Lucie conversationally.

 

“Yeah,” Lucie said, “and if you lived with him you’d know it, believe me.”

 

Jason joined the Doctor at the rubble, but the Time Lord held out a hand in warning. “I suggest you keep back, Mr Lane. I don’t want you getting any kind of psychic feedback. It felt like a kick in the head to me, and my synapses are far more developed than yours.”

 

“It just looks like rock,” Jason observed.

 

“It’s actually a little more than that.” The Doctor turned the sonic screwdriver the right way up and passed it over the rubble, his thumb holding down one of the buttons. The tool emitted a low humming noise that made Lucie’s teeth ache. “There’s a consciousness in here.”

 

“In the rock?”

 

“Yes. Only a fraction, but there’s definitely something. If I try another scan…” The noise changed, warbling rather than humming, the light on the top of the screwdriver turning blue. “Ah. Yes, there it is. If I can just - ”

 

Lucie squinted into the shadows. The position of Jason’s torch wasn’t great but she could see something… “Doctor!”

 

He flapped a distracted hand at her. “Not now, Lucie, I’m busy.”

 

“Doctor, you might want to get away from there,” Lucie said, resisting the urge to back away herself. There was definitely something odd about the floor that couldn’t be explained by the shadows thrown by the torch.

 

Now he looked up at her. “What?”

 

“The rock – the rock’s moving!” Maggie cried out.

 

There was a rumbling, and the floor suddenly shook as though a tremor was running through it. The rubble shuddered, and rolled - Jason took two steps backwards and stumbled, ending up full-length on the floor, the breath knocked out of him. The Doctor grabbed him under the arm, heaved him to his feet, unsteady as the ground shook beneath them, nearly going down himself.

 

“Lucie! Which way’s the TARDIS?” he shouted, struggling to get up, only to be thrown to the floor as it quaked again.

 

“Down there, I think! To the left!” She would have gone to help him but to her astonishment something seemed to be rising up out of the rock between them like Godzilla out of the sea, the ground parting to make way for – “Doctor, _look out_!”

 

But it was too late. Before he could even react a hand had snaked out of the rock and grabbed his ankle. The Doctor yelled in alarm as it began to pull him slowly, inexorably, towards the hole that had opened up in the floor…

 

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

Jason grabbed the Doctor’s arm, his instincts taking over and ignoring the fact that his brain was screaming out that there wasn’t a hand coming out of the rock, there wasn’t, there wasn’t, there wasn’t –

 

“Hang on!” he shouted trying to get a grip but ending up with a handful of the Doctor’s sleeve instead. The material was thick, but it wouldn’t hold for long and the thing holding onto the Doctor’s leg was incredibly strong. “Just hang on!”

 

“I appreciate your efforts, Mr Lane, but it does seem to be rather insistent,” the Doctor gasped as the creature tugged on his ankle and his face creased in pain. He turned his head, presumably trying to spot Lucie across the heaving floor. Jason looked and couldn’t see her or Maggie – the rock had risen up and completely hidden them from view. “Lucie! _Lucie_!”

 

“Doctor!” Her voice came from somewhere behind them, where a wall now stood where the middle of the tunnel had once been. “Doctor, we’re trapped! It’s come from all around – can’t get through!”

 

“Try to reach the TARDIS!” The Doctor’s voice cracked as the hand took a tighter grip and dragged him further towards the hole. Jason pulled with all his strength in the opposite direction, but his arms were at full stretch and the foot he’d jammed behind an outcrop was slipping. He was going to get dragged in too…

 

“What about you?” Lucie called, “Doctor - ”

 

“Just get to the TARDIS! I think I may have - ” There was the sound of tearing fabric, and then Jason realised quite suddenly that the shoulder seam of the Doctor’s jacket had finally given way. With a roar of triumph, the rock creature gathered in its prey. Jason reached out desperately, but with his meagre resistance gone its strength meant that the Doctor was gone with terrifying speed. All Jason was left with was the end of his sentence, hanging in the suddenly still air:

 

“ – I think I may have miscalculated.”

 

 

***

 

 

“Doctor!”

 

Everything had stopped, as if the creature had never been there. Or it would have seemed that way had it not been for the new formations in the rock.

 

Lucie and Maggie had to find their way along another tunnel that was quite abruptly in their path before they managed to reach Jason. The floor looked like a sculptural representation of an angry sea, the rock rising up in waves and forcing them to climb awkwardly towards him. He was getting to his feet in the middle of it all, the only flat stretch of floor to be seen in the dim light from his fallen torch. A piece of black cloth that Lucie realised was the Doctor’s sleeve was clutched in his hand, but of the Time Lord himself there was no sign. She snatched up the torch and turned up the beam, but the hole that she had seen opening in the centre of the floor had gone, and with it –

 

“Oh, my God.”

 

“There was nothing I could do,” Jason said, still staring at the ground with eyes like saucers. “It just…took him!” After a beat he turned those eyes on Lucie. “What the hell was it?”

 

“That was your monster,” she told him, and he shook his head almost reflexively, returning his gaze to the floor.

 

“You mean it’s that…thing that’s been causing everyone to feel so strange?” asked Maggie. She was pale and shaking but not as weirded out as Jason, for which Lucie was grateful. With the Doctor gone she wasn’t sure she could manage two people going to pieces on her.

 

“Yeah, well, it was a bit more subtle the last time,” she admitted, “Looks like it’s getting _really_ hungry.”

 

“And it just ate the Doctor? But I thought he said - ”

 

They just looked at each other. Lucie wondered whether Maggie was thinking the same thing: namely that if the creature couldn’t digest the Doctor’s alien energy, how come it had gone for him before anyone else?

 

 

***

 

 

 _Ah, there you are. It gives us pleasure to_ _feel you here with us…_

The Doctor was blind.

 

That didn’t bother him overmuch, in fact he could have coped with it rather well if he hadn’t had the added and rather more worrying sensation of being cocooned within the rock, it pressing on his chest, his lungs, his hearts, crushing him, crushing him in its vice-like grip until –

 

“Stop it.” He said the words aloud, quite suddenly aware of the presence all around him, seeping insidiously into his skin, through his pores, down to his bones, right into his subconscious, playing on and increasing the feeling of panic that was welling up inside him. “Wait until you’re invited in.”

 

_You are old. You do not belong on this world. You are not like these primitives. You…interest us…_

 

“Well, I’m an interesting guy, so I’ve been told. But how about we start with the introductions? I’m the Doctor – sorry I can’t shake hands at the moment. Who are you and what’re you doing on this planet?”

 

_Our name will mean nothing to you._

 

“Do try me. I’m rather well-travelled.”

 

_Names are of no importance. Our self is all that matters. Nothing more. All must feed to perpetuate the self…_

 

“That’s very single-minded of you. And selfish, if I may say so.” The Doctor heard his voice catch and realised that if he was going to keep talking like this it wouldn’t be long before the air ran out. His respiratory bypass had started to contract already. Deliberately, he tried to concentrate on the creature – it was evidently some sort of gestalt entity from its misuse of pronouns. No individual identity. How incredibly boring. “That doesn’t exactly answer my question, though. Why are you here?”

 

_To feed. You are new to us. Fascinating. Exciting. We have tasted your aura, your energy. It is…invigorating…our palate has become jaded after so many centuries without fresh…meat…_

 

“So…” The Doctor wheezed, trying not to take a deep breath. The pressure on his chest was increasing, the grip of the rock around him becoming tighter, or was that just his imagination? Was there even any air here at all? “…so it wasn’t Lucie who woke you up.” Had he been able to he would have smacked himself on the forehead as the realisation hit. _Stupid Doctor! You should have realised that!_

 

_At first the taste of even a primitive was enough…we have slept for so long…but now that we have tasted…you, Doctor…we need more. We wish to leave this planet…_

 

“It didn’t take you long to bring that up. Sorry, there’s no way on Earth – or even off it – that I’m letting you have a nibble at me. Or anyone else, for that matter. And I don’t pick up hitchhikers.”

 

 _There will be no debate. There is nothing you can do. A puny creature such as yourself is no match for us…_ The thing laughed, a sibilant hissing that crawled up the Doctor’s spine like icy fingers. _But we shall not sup on you just yet.._

He had been preparing himself for a mental battle, putting up barriers as he felt the thing starting to slips its tendrils into his subconscious. The remark caught him so off-guard that for a moment the Doctor forgot to breathe. Or had he stopped? He couldn’t be sure. Before he could even consider saying anything the creature continued:

 

_You will be of use to us. Why should we remain trapped within this one miserable planet when you can show us so many more? So many new flavours…we will taste them all…through you…_

***

 

 

“We have to do something. We can’t just leave him down there!”

 

Maggie stared. “Us? What can we do?”

 

“I haven’t worked that one out yet, but we have to do something.” Lucie started looking around, moving the torch over the undulating rock. They _had_ the torch, but although the creature hadn’t liked the light before she couldn’t see it being much use to them now. Maybe there was another hole, a route down to wherever the Doctor had been taken…

 

“He’s dead,” said Jason. “He _has_ to be dead.”

 

“First rule of life with the Doctor: he’s never dead when he’s meant to be. Come on – help me look.”

 

“What for?” Maggie asked, glancing nervously over her shoulder as though expecting the rock monster to return at any moment. Lucie knew how she felt – there was a prickling all over her back, as though she was being watched.

 

“Oh, I don’t know…anything. I’m not giving up on him,” Lucie said firmly. “There must be a way down there, somewhere.”

 

Maggie obediently started scouring the floor, despite the dim light, probably to take her mind off the enormity of what had just happened. Lucie approved. Jason was going to be more difficult to handle, though – this was all a bit outside of his rather limited view of the world. She went over to him and clapped a hand on his shoulder.

 

“Come on, mate, give us a hand,” she said, deliberately injecting some cheer into her voice.

 

“I just don’t believe it,” he muttered, ignoring her, “All the years I’ve worked in these caves…I used to sneak down here as a kid! And all that time it’s been _alive_? It’s impossible…”

 

Lucie sighed. “Yeah, I know. It gets you like that sometimes.”

 

“Lucie!” Maggie waved, the torchlight sending her shadow skittering over the ceiling. Something glinted in the beam – Lucie hurried over to find that it was the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver. He must have dropped it during the struggle. Maggie handed it over, looking curious, and Lucie found herself grinning with delight.

 

“Maggie, you are brilliant,” she said.

 

The activity finally managed to rouse Jason from his own little world. “What the hell is _that_?” he demanded, sounding more like what Lucie took for his normal self.

 

“Something to fight back with.” She ran her thumb over the screwdriver’s controls, trying to remember which switch she’d hit before. “You might want to cover your ears.”

 

They both looked at her in confusion, ten seconds before Lucie found the right switch and they were covering their ears, faces screwed up in pain. She pointed the screwdriver at the even stretch of floor, the resulting screech setting her teeth on edge and threatening to perforate both her eardrums. The tunnel almost seemed to vibrate around her, chunks of rock rolling down the walls and throwing up clouds of dust that send Jason and Maggie coughing. Lucie jumped and almost overbalanced as a great crack suddenly appeared in the floor, rending it in two right across the tunnel, practically under her feet. She leapt backwards – a bloody great rumbling noise was coming from somewhere, and the ground was shaking again, even worse than before.

 

“Oh, Christ,” she muttered, “What the hell have I done?”

 

“Lucie!” Maggie shouted, “What’re you _doing_? It’ll cave in on us!”

 

Jason stumbled over to her and lunged for the screwdriver. He caught hold of her hand, trying to prise her fingers open, but she held on tight. “You stupid cow!” he yelled. “You’ll bury us all alive!”

 

“Get off me!” Lucie slapped at his arm, attempting to wrench herself free. Her free hand curled into a fist. “Look, mate, I’m warning you - ”

 

“Oh, my God!” cried Maggie, startling them both. She was staring wide-eyed at the chasm in the floor, which, Lucie realised in horror, had widened almost a foot in the last few seconds. The rumbling was getting louder, a dark shape appearing from under the ground, over the edge of the crack in the rock. Before she could even move, there was a sound like a thunderclap and something was catapulted out of the hole to land heavily on the floor barely three feet from where she was standing. Maggie shrieked and backed away, colliding with Jason and sending them both tumbling to the ground.

 

Lucie stood her ground, watching the shape as it rolled over and groaned. Quickly she turned the sonic screwdriver the other way up and activated the torch – in the powerful beam she could see a very familiar figure getting slowly to his hands and knees and turning to face her. She couldn’t help smiling. He was dirty, dishevelled, his expensive suit in tatters, but very much alive. Just as she’d expected.

 

The Doctor put up a hand to shield his eyes from the light, squinting at her. “Lucie, would you mind moving that?” he asked hoarsely.

 

After a beat, Lucie did, and went to help him up. He stood on jelly legs, looking around at the ‘rearrangement’ of the tunnel in a mixture of interest and astonishment. “Yeah,” Lucie said in answer to his unasked question, “That thing’s one hell of an interior designer.”

 

“It has an incredible amount of molecular control over the rock – that’s how it snares its prey.”

 

“So we saw. What kept you?”

 

The Doctor rubbed his head, wincing. “ _It_ did. It wanted to have a chat.”

 

“Couldn’t it just have invited you out for a coffee?”

 

“I got the impression that it hasn’t exactly mastered the social niceties. What have you done with Maggie and Jason?”

 

“God, I’d forgotten all about them! Guys? Are you OK?” Lucie called, shining the torch in the direction she’d last seen them. After a moment a disembodied hand waved in the shadows. “Maggie?”

 

“Over here!” Maggie shouted. “Jase has brained himself – he landed on me and I can’t shift him.”

 

Lucie hurried over, clambering uncomfortably over the rocky barriers. One of her sandals had chosen just that moment to stat rubbing her foot – she could feel the beginnings of a blister and wondered absently whether the Doctor had any plasters in his bottomless pockets. She found Jason indeed out cold, a bruise starting to form on his forehead. Between them she and Maggie managed to roll his inert body to one side – he was a big bloke, and heavy with it, and it took a fair bit of effort just to move him enough for Maggie to free herself. Lucie crouched down beside him and shook his shoulder.

 

“Jason? Come on, mate, wake up.” No reaction. “Jason! Jason, we have to get out of here, it’s not safe. Come on - ”

 

She felt a hand on her arm, and nearly jumped six feet in the air. She looked round to see that the Doctor had joined them without her noticing. “Bloody hell! I thought I told you not to do that?”

 

“Let me look at him,” he said, ignoring the question. Lucie watched as he checked Jason’s pulse, lifting his eyelids and feeling his forehead. He tried tapping the side of the man’s face, but it provoked no more of a response than had her own attempts.

 

“Diagnosis?” she prompted.

 

“He’s suffering from severe concussion, and needs immediate medical attention. Looks like he fell quite heavily – with all this sharp rock around it’s a wonder he didn’t crack his skull.”

 

“Can you do anything for him?” asked Maggie nervously.

 

“Not here. If we take him back to the TARD – aaahhh!” The Doctor broke off, his face twisting in pain. He dropped Jason’s wrist, hands going instead to his own head, fingers clutching at his hair. “No! Get out, get out, _get out_!!”

 

_Doctor, did you think that you could escape us? Your usefulness has barely begun…_

The voice was the same one that Lucie had heard before. It was like fingernails down a blackboard, cold fingers trailing along her spine. She felt the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck stand on end.

 

 _You cannot leave this place…we_ are _this place…there is nothing here that is not us…_

“That’s what you think,” the Doctor managed through gritted teeth. His face contorted even more, a vein bulging in his neck as he doubled over, collapsing to his knees on the hard rock of the floor. Lucie tried to take his arm, but he shrugged her off. “I’ve had…rather a lot of…practise...at this sort of thing…”

 

_What…what are you doing? You cannot…you cannot…_

 

“I think you’ll find…that I… _can_!” There was a howl from the creature. Something in the Doctor’s face shifted, his clenched jaw loosened, and he opened his eyes. Even in the torchlight Lucie could see that whatever he was doing to fight the creature had exhausted him: he was horribly pale beneath the dirt and scratches. He looked at her. “That won’t hold them off for long. We have to get back to the TARDIS.”

 

“Best idea you’ve had in days. But what do we do about Jason? We can’t leave him here - ”

 

“I’ll take him.” It must have taken a huge effort, given how drained he looked, but the Doctor took hold of Jason’s arm and hoisted him over one shoulder. Maggie just stared at him, presumably trying to work out how someone as slight at the Doctor could lift, let alone carry, a man of Jason’s size. Lucie, of course, was well aware by now that the Time Lord was a lot stronger than he looked. “Which way, Lucie?”

 

It was difficult to get her bearings, the tunnel had changed so much. Lucie swung the torch beam round, trying to spot anything that looked familiar. “Over there, I think. The bend in the tunnel’s still there.”

 

“Right, come on, then.” The Doctor hefted Jason’s weight and moved off, leaving Lucie and Maggie to follow him. “Oh, and Lucie?”

 

“Yes, Doctor?”

 

 “Keep the sonic screwdriver handy.”

 

 

***

 

 

 

Lucie couldn’t remember when she’d last been so glad to see the TARDIS.

 

The journey back had been surprisingly trouble-free – she wondered whether whatever the Doctor did to the creature had made it back off completely, and told him so, but he shook his head. “They want me to come back here,” he said, “but they want it to be on _their_ terms, not mine. We have to beat them to it.”

 

It was when they were nearly there that Lucie felt the prickling of ice down her spine again, felt the stare of unseen eyes on her back. “It’s coming.”

 

The Doctor’s face crumpled, and she guessed the thing was renewing its assault. With a supreme effort, he broke into a wobbly run, but Jason’s weight would surely slow him down…

 

“Maggie! Give us a hand!” Lucie shouted, dashing forwards to the Doctor’s side and supporting Jason’s dangling upper body. The man was still out for the count. After a moment Maggie realised what she was trying to do and took Jason’s other side. Between them the three managed to get him to the TARDIS doors, but Lucie could feel the creature getting closer. She imagined it to be like some kind of electrical current, surging through the rock to wherever it needed to be. Her hair was standing up as though it was filled with static.

 

The Doctor leaned against the TARDIS, feeling through his pockets for the key. He was visibly drooping, his hand shaking as he finally found the key and tried to put it in the lock. Lucie caught hold of his fingers and guided them – at last the door opened and they all but fell over the threshold. Behind them she could hear the ominous rumbling of the creature’s arrival.

 

“Doctor - ”

 

He swiftly laid Jason down on the chaise longue, hurrying to the console and slamming a lever home. The big double doors boomed shut. The Doctor leaned over the controls, breathing heavily. Without his usual mane of hair to hide it, Lucie could see that his face was as white as chalk. From the corner of her eye she spotted Maggie staring around her open-mouthed – normally she would have enjoyed playing on a newcomer’s reaction to the TARDIS, but they had more important things to worry about. She went to the Doctor’s side and rested a hand on his arm.

 

“What do we do now?” she asked. “I take it that this isn’t the usual ‘destroy the baddie’ scenario. What do we do about a load of living rock?”

 

His response was to start flicking switches on the console. As he worked, Lucie became aware of a familiar feeling, the same thing she had felt outside, that horrible, teeth-on-edge sensation that something unpleasant was on its way. She pulled back the sleeve of her fleece and found goose bumps standing up on the flesh of her arm.

 

“Oh, God…it’s here! It’s in here!”

 

“No.” The Doctor shook his head, his eyes squeezed shut. He tapped his temple with one long finger. “It’s in _here_.”

 

She gaped at him. “That thing’s in your head?”

 

“Part of it. It was trying to crush my mental defences when you gave it that blast with the sonic screwdriver. I managed to hold out but it still insinuated a tiny sliver of its consciousness into my mind. It’s feeding from my Artron energy.” He held onto the edge of the console, knuckles whitening. “I was wrong, Lucie – I assumed it wouldn’t be able to metabolise the energy from the TARDIS, but it has, and it wants more. Now it’s discovered a new taste, it wants to gorge itself.”

 

“So what do we do?”

 

“I have to get it out, before the rest of it find away to break in. If that happens they’ll take control of me, take the TARDIS and head off for a five course banquet in every star system. There’s only one way…through the telepathic circuits. I have to…nghhh!” His legs buckled, and Lucie leapt to catch him before he hit the floor. “I’m going…I’m going to need your help.”

 

“You know me, Doctor, ready for anything. What do I do?”

 

She listened carefully as he haltingly gave her the instructions, and called the somewhat gob smacked Maggie over to lend a hand. Fortunately, Maggie was rather efficient, and once given something practical to do, became the soul of organisation, for which Lucie was thankful, as the Doctor’s instructions didn’t make a whole lot of sense. In fact, Maggie turned out to be a dab hand at finding strangely-named TARDIS controls, Lucie being reduced to translating gibberish like ‘telepathic conduits’ into ‘those funny metal plate thingies’.

 

After what seemed like a month and a half but was probably really only about five minutes, the Doctor suddenly sat bolt upright from where he’d been leaning against Lucie, as though he’d been electrocuted. “It’s here,” he said, “Quickly!”

 

Maggie and Lucie braced him between them, propping him up against the console and placing his outstretched hands on the metal contact plates on the ledge. As they did the scanner flickered on, and they got a good look at what was happening outside.

 

“Oh bleedin’ hell…” Lucie gasped.

 

There was rock. Nothing but rock. Where a few minutes ago there had been a big, dank, dripping cave, now there was nothing for the scanner to see but a wall. The TARDIS had been entombed.

 

The Doctor saw it too. He stiffened, hands clenching on the metal plates. “Hurry…” he breathed, “…before it finds a way inside…”

 

“Here goes…” Maggie reached over and flicked a series of switches, glancing anxiously back at the Doctor.

 

The effect was alarming. His face was contorted, sweat running down his forehead, blue energy crackling through his fingers and across the console, snaking up and round the time rotor as though the whole thing had just been electrified. A moment later the rotor began to move, the piston inside moving up and down – startled, Lucie looked up at the scanner but the ship hadn’t moved. There was a burst of light from inside the glass column, and she was forced to cover her eyes.

 

When she lowered her hand, there was a big pink bubble suspended in midair on the other side of the console. _Something_ was thrashing about inside it, tentacles rising from the swirling mass and slapping against the sides of the sphere – she jumped as one hit the surface hard, only to shrink back as it encountered some sort of barrier, sparks trailing from it.

 

“It worked…thank goodness.” The Doctor had straightened slightly, opening his eyes.

 

Lucie blinked. “That’s it? That’s the thing that was in your head?”

 

“Pretty, isn’t it? And that’s just a tiny piece of it.”

 

“You mean there’s more?” Maggie asked in revulsion.

 

“Oh, yes. Many other little slivers that make up the whole. It’s a gestalt, many minds that make up the whole creature.” Removing the thing’s presence in his mind seemed to have restored some of the Doctor’s energy. His hands raced across the console, pulling levers and twisting dials. “Now we just have to lure in the rest of it.”

 

“How will you do that?”

 

“Carrot on a stick?” Lucie suggested.

 

“I don’t think that would satisfy it for long. No, I’m going to give it what it wants – a concentrated meal of Artron energy,” said the Doctor.

 

“Is that really such a good idea?”

 

“Think about it: it’s never digested Artron energy before. Well, not properly, only what it’s siphoned from me. Compared to the real thing it’s like drinking squash instead of fruit juice.”

 

“Diluted?” said Maggie.

 

“Precisely.” The Doctor’s hand came to rest on a large red button. “Now imagine what will happen when it tries to consume the full-strength Artron energy. It’s pretty powerful stuff, you know – powers thousands of TARDISes, throughout space and time, as well as everything back on Gallifrey. If you eat too much, you get - ”

 

Lucie smiled. “Indigestion.”

 

The creature in the bubble writhed like a bag of snakes. Another tendril hit the barrier, making the energy that contained it spark and crackle again. Maggie jumped.

 

_Doctor…do not do this…_

The Doctor ignored it. “Now,” he said, touching the button with one finger, “if this works, it should map the telepathic circuits onto the outer plasmic shell, at the same time boosting the TARDIS’s energy signature…”

 

“And for those of us who don’t speak fluent technobabble…?” prompted Lucie.

 

“It should be rather like sounding the dinner gong.”

 

_Doctor…you cannot do this to us…you are our tool…our creature…_

The Doctor pushed the button home.

 

The effect was immediate, and alarming. The creature screamed, a horrible unearthly sound, and the TARDIS shuddered, as though some curious giant had picked it up and was shaking it to see what was inside. Lucie grabbed for one of the girders and held on as the console room vibrated around her. She looked up at the scanner again to see that something was happening outside, too – the rock that cocooned the TARDIS was cracking, shattering and breaking away, chunks rolling down the side of the ship in great clouds of enveloping dust. It was like watching an earthquake rip through. The sound of the creature’s screeching rose louder and louder over the din, the ball of tentacles in the bubble growing larger and larger, thrashing around dementedly. On the console the Doctor turned a dial – the TARDIS rolled like a ship on a stormy sea, throwing Lucie and Maggie to the floor and tipping Jason from his couch. Lucie pulled herself upright in time to see the light of the time rotor flare, glowing brighter and brighter until she thought it might blind her; the electricity she’d seen before encircling the glass like a halo of blue fire.

 

“Doctor!”

 

He was manipulating the controls desperately, turning the dial back, but it didn’t seem to be making any difference. “The circuits have overloaded! I can’t - ”

 

His words were lost in the noise of what sounded like a massive explosion. The TARDIS rocked, Lucie’s head hit the base of one of the girders and everything went black.

 

 

***

 

 

She groaned. Her head felt as though it might split in two.

 

“Lucie? Lucie, can you hear me?”

 

After a moment she tried opening her eyes, and immediately recoiled at the light. “Oi! Turn it down, will you? It’s blinding me!”

 

“I think she’ll  be all right,” said a dark smudge that she took to be the Doctor. He sounded amused, and she wished she had the energy to slap him. Energy…

 

She sat bolt upright, and immediately wished she hadn’t. “That thing! Where is it? What - ”

 

“Lucie, Lucie, Lucie, it’s all right.” The Doctor rested a hand on her shoulder, gently easing her back down onto the couch. “It worked. It’s all over.”

 

Lucie groaned again. “What, you mean I missed it? Great.”

 

“We _all_ missed it,” said Maggie, appearing behind the Doctor in Lucie’s line of vision. Behind her, Lucie could see Jason, his head bandaged, slumped down in the Doctor’s armchair. And beyond _him_ …

 

The pink bubble was still there, hovering above the floor. Inside it, the creature was still, no longer writhing around like a mad thing. “Is it dead?” Lucie asked.

 

The Doctor shook his head. “No, just dormant again. It’s got nothing to feed on in there. That’s the state it’s been in for most of its time on Earth, only managing to have a snack when some unwary person ventured into the caves.”

 

“Like the men who died?” Maggie asked.

 

“Yes. Sucked dry, I should think. And I’m fairly sure that the reason why both the village and the miners left the site was because of the influence that thing sent out. It was trying to sneak into their minds, but the lead down there made a pretty effective barrier – it couldn’t actually _do_ anything unless its victim was on the spot, so to speak. Hence the feeling that someone was watching you when you went below.”

 

She thought about that for a moment, and then nodded. “It makes sense. And Jason couldn’t feel it because he’s not so susceptible to suggestion?”

 

“No, I think it’s more the case that he just refused to listen to what it was trying to tell him. Until this morning, when he had to pass beyond the barrier,” said the Doctor.

 

“So,” said Lucie, feeling left out of the conversation, “What do we do with that thing now?”

 

“Drop it off on some uninhabited planet in a backwater system where it can’t do any damage.” There was a low moan from behind, and Jason stirred in the chair. “Ah, Mr Lane! Welcome back.”

 

“Wha…what’s going on?” Jason demanded, sitting up and staring around him at the Gothic majesty of the console room. His eyes were like saucers. “Where the hell am I?”

 

“You’re in my ship,” said the Doctor.

 

“Inside a police box,” Maggie added helpfully, “It’s bigger on the inside.”

 

For a long moment, Jason just stared at them both. The he started to laugh. “What? You’re jerking my chain. A police box? That’s a good one. How’s it all done – mirrors?”

 

The Doctor looked at Maggie and sighed. “Yes, Mr Lane, it’s an illusion. All done with mirrors.”

 

“Thought so.” Jason smiled smugly. He looked around him again. “Pretty impressive, though. I could’ve almost believed it was real!”

 

Lucie shook her head. Bloody-minded to the last, still clinging onto his own narrow version of reality.

 

“Riiight!” said the Doctor, reaching for the door lever. “Time to say goodbye, I’m afraid. Lucie and I have an appointment on Artus Prime, and we’re already three thousand years late.”

 

Maggie hesitated for a moment, and then held out a hand. “Thank you, Doctor. You managed to exorcise the caves – no one else has done that!”

 

“Oh, they just lacked the right equipment.” He smiled and shook her hand. “Goodbye, Maggie.”

 

“Bye, Maggie,” said Lucie from the couch. She nodded towards Jason, who was still looking around and muttering to himself. “Try and prise open his mind a bit, will you?”

 

“I’ll do my best. Come on, Jase, we’ve got customers,” Maggie said, grabbing his arm and pulling him towards the door.

 

He looked startled. “What? Oh, yeah, right.”

 

“Goodbye, Mr Lane,” called the Doctor. Jason gave him a funny look and a half-hearted wave before he followed Maggie out into the sunshine.

 

Lucie dragged herself from the chaise longue and joined the Doctor at the console. Someone had taken off her sandals while she’d been unconscious, and the cool parquet of the floor felt wonderful under her bare feet, even if her head did hurt like mad. The Doctor’s suit was in ruins, the material shredded, one sleeve missing and the other hanging off at the shoulder. “You’ve wrecked that,” she remarked, trying to brush some of the dust away.

 

“Lucie, I’ve told you before – there’s no point in me wearing ‘posh gear’ in my line of work. Look what happens to it!” He shrugged out of the remains of the jacket and dropped it on the floor, reaching for the old green velvet frock coat that hung on the hat stand. He pulled it on and struck a pose, arms held wide as if to say, “See?”

 

She laughed and shook her head again, immediately wishing that she hadn’t. “Oww. Will everything be OK with the mine?” she asked. “Now the creature’s gone?”

 

“Oh, I should think so. No more unpleasant alien influence, no more ghost stories.”

 

“That’s a shame. I’m rather partial to the odd ghost story.”

 

There was a shout from outside. The Doctor turned on the scanner and his eyebrows shot up. “Oh, dear…” Swiftly he pulled the lever to shut the doors.

 

“Doctor?” Lucie peered round him at the screen as he started pushing buttons, readying the TARDIS for dematerialisation. All she could see was a very angry Jason, turning towards the ship and opening his mouth to say something.

 

“Time we were somewhere else, I think…”

 

 

***

 

 

Jason stared at the devastation where the mine entrance had once been.

 

Matt had got the visitors to safety at the bottom of the hill, but nothing could disguise the great smoking crater where the mine used to be. Half the hillside seemed to have fallen in, though thankfully the offices and the shop were still intact. Dust was rising from the hole, bowling its way down the hill in the breeze.

 

Jason swore. Loudly. And then he swore again. Maggie was just staring in astonishment. After several moments of paralysis, Jason finally thought to ask the man responsible what the hell he thought he was playing at. “Doctor!” he yelled, turning round, “Doctor, who the bloody hell is going to pay for all this?!”

 

As he turned, an appalling trumpeting noise came from behind. He’d heard that noise before somewhere…

 

He blinked. The hill path was empty. No sign of the Doctor, Lucie or that weird place he and Maggie had just walked out of. Nothing. Just the grass waving in the wind and a couple of sheep cropping at the shoots on the side of the path. Amazed, confused and furious, he turned back to the crater in the hill. Down on the road he could see the blue flashing lights of an approaching police car.

 

Jason swore for the third time. “How are we meant to explain _this_?”

 

There was a cough from somewhere to his left. He looked round to see a tall, elderly man with a clipped grey moustache and regimental tie standing there. A customer? Jason readied himself to take on a complaint, but the man raised just his panama hat and smiled.

 

“Excuse me,” he said in perfect public school tones, “I couldn’t help overhearing. I think I may be able to help you…”

 

 

FIN

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                               


End file.
